Post navigation

The PERFECT Pumpkin Pancakes (Vegan)

Oh. My. GOSH. This is the best recipe I’ve come up with in a loooong time. I love pancakes, and I love pumpkin, but all my attempts to combine the two have resulted in a gummy, dense, rubbery, unpleasant-to-eat mess. This recipe solves all the problems of gooey, gummy, rubbery, flat fruit-based pancakes. I think the problem with most fruit-based pancake recipes (pumpkin, apple sauce) is that they use too much fruit. Here, I really cut down on the pumpkin, but added plenty of spices to help the pumpkin flavor come through. I thought they were really tasty, but I’m seriously biased, so I checked with my husband, and he thought they were fabulous – suitably pumpkin-y, spicey, yet thick, fluffy, and not gummy. Basically, these are everything a pancake should be – thick, fluffy, light, flavorful – with the added bonus of pumpkin.

Look how thick these puppies are!

I’ve learned a lot about making pancakes from the Candle Cafe cookbook and Isa’s cookbooks/blog. Pancakes are easy and quick, but to get them right takes some care. I’m not a fan of the thin, rubbery pancakes that sometimes result from other vegan recipes. These are SO THICK and fluffy and delicately flavored.

They did take some extra time to make, but that might be attributed to the fact that I was just moving slower than usual this morning. The one-year-old got up early, so she and I went downstairs to piddle in the kitchen. She’s gotten up early the past few days; it’s actually really nice to have time with just her. It also gave me the time to make these without the distractions of her 3-year old sister. The one-year-old is pretty easy-going and entertained herself by going through our cabinets while I cooked.

I did use some tips from Isa; for example, I never used to let my pancake batter sit and rest while heating up the skiddle before. She suggests doing so, and I think it really works. If you are looking for the perfect vegan non-pumpkin recipe, I suggest you use her recipe found here: http://www.theppk.com/2011/12/puffy-pillow-pancakes/

All right, on to the recipe.

The wet:

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

a dash of vanilla

1 tablespoon brown sugar (I like my pancakes not-sweet; if you like yours sweet, add some more sugar)

2 cups soy milk or a mixture of soy milk and water (I used one cup of each)

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Mix the wet ingredients together with a whisk. Let it sit while you get the dry ingredients ready.

The dry:

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (or another cup white flour)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 generous teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

Mix together all the dry ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and stire BRIEFLY and GENTLY, just until mixed.

Heat up your cast-iron skiddle and add a touch of oil.

Let the skiddle heat for 5-10 minutes while the batter sits.

Using a scoop or measuring cup, pour about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the griddle. You can smooth it out a little if you want, but I found that these pancakes spread just fine on their own and were the absolute perfect thickness.

When the pancakes are bubbly, flip and cook on the other side for a minute or two. Do not flip more than once; that will make your pancakes tough and chewy instead of thick and fluffy. Add a little oil to the pan every few batches, or as needed.

Time to flip

Serve with Earth Balance and some maple syrup. YUM.

Today is grey and dreary so I couldn't get fabulous pictures, but look at how fluffy these are. YUM.

Seriously, these are the best things I’ve made in quite some time. I love pumpkin; I stockpile it in the fall to the point where my husband mocks me. He once counted the cans of pumpkin we had – I think it was in the double digits. Every time he went to the store in the fall, I’d yell at him as he was leaving “don’t forget to get some pumpkin!!”, because, apparently, in my mind, we as a society are always on the cusp of a worldwide pumpkin shortage, and I am a vegan who does NOT want to be left with pumpkin-free cupboards. Suffice it to say, we can actually get pumpkin year-round, most of the time, but I always seem to forget this every fall. So we have lots of pumpkin, to my delight. These are a perfect way to use pumpkin. I cannot get over how thick and fluffy and light these were. Absolute pancake-pumpkin PERFECTION. I’m telling you, they really are. Go make some!